Such is the case of Spreckels, who once owned major parts of San Diego, real estate and institutions. He owned the Hotel del Coronado and the San Diego Union and Tribune, which made the list, but as a brand name, except for an organ, theater, park and school, he’s toast. Meanwhile, diet maven Jenny Craig remains fit to be listed.

George W. Marston was San Diego’s “first citizen” in the first half of the 20th century, known for his numerous civic do-good efforts — Presidio Park and its Serra Museum, for example — and his top-drawer department store, where the tea room served coconut cream pies. But El Indio restaurant, which invented the taquito for World War II workers, outlasted “Geranium” George in the civic memory, at least in brand-name staying power.

Ad Club President Jonathan Bailey said the 100 brands represent a rich heritage and window into San Diego’s future.

“We’re a market leader for a number of things,” he said. “We’ve grown quite a lot number of national brands as a result. If you look at Rubio’s, Jack in the Box, Postal Annex — they all began here and grew from here.”

Sign painters founded the San Diego Ad Club, calling it originally the San Diego Men’s Advertising Club when it was formally established in March 1912. But their priority wasn’t product brands as much as the city itself.

“The purpose of the organization is to boost San Diego,” the San Diego Union reported.

Another goal — “elimination of fake advertising schemes of all sorts” — led club leaders to establish the Better Business Bureau in 1921, the second agency of its kind in the U.S.

The face of admen has changed since the club’s founding. Women were admitted in the 1920s and “men’s” was dropped and “sales” added before today’s shortened form took hold. The club currently counts more than 550 members from from 250 advertising and marketing companies.

At the club’s monthly meeting Friday, Ann Mack, director of trend spotting for the J. Walter Thompson ad agency in New York, cited numerous examples of advertising that both sells products and influences consumer preferences. Last year Mack's company bought San Diego-based Digitaria to serve as JWT's digital arm.

“We’re in an interesting place,” she said. “We’re in an industry that can help shape and drive culture by what we do.”

Advertisers are now helping clients turn daily chores into fun — “gasification,” she called it — and finding ways for consumers to sort through mind-numbing choices, even coming up with mobile phone applications that can deter overspending and texting while driving.

But she said advertisers who attempt to lend their brand name to charitable efforts have to be careful.